I'm running one machine here on Win98. I know. I know. It's old. But it's necessary. The video card is NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 MODEL 64. The problem is that the video display, some time ago, started showing ghost shadow lines across the screen on either side of whatever is displaying on the screen. I thought perhaps the monitor was dying, so replaced it. Funny things the display still shows the same problem. As near as I can tell I have an update driver. (Got it from Gateway - the manufacturer of this machine). Am I looking at a video card that is dying?

[quote name='StuartR' post='777554' date='30-May-2009 08:34']This could also be caused by a faulty video cable.[/quote]
I wasn't clear whether replacing the monitor implied that the video cable was also replaced. Most modern monitors have 'captive' cables, with a plug only at the far end of the wire.

A possible solution might be to remove the video card, carefully rub all the gold contacts with a hard (pencil) eraser (usually called a rubber, in the UK), carefully remove all the tiny pieces that got rubbed off, then reseat the card, pushing it up and down a couple of times.

StuartR & Batcher ... thanks ... Actually I didn't change the video cable. I'll give that a try. I should have thought, also, about reseating and cleaning the contacts on the card. In the "old days" I used to have to do that kind of thing frequently. Maybe I'm getting too used to reliability in certain areas.

Well ... I tried swapping the cable. The shadows were still there. Plus now the right half of the screen is a shade darker than the left. So I swapped the cables back (the original appeared to be a heavier duty cable) but the shadows and split screen shading (exactly a straight line split down the middle - never seen that before) is still there. I'll keep plugging.

One other thing, this monitor is running on a long extension cable. It's necessary to have the computer in another location for noise reduction purposes. So that may be affecting it -- although this "problem" didn't show up until it had been running like this for about two or three years.

Soon as I get a chance I'll shut her down and clean the video card as suggested.

[quote name='AlStewart' post='777601' date='30-May-2009 19:39']One other thing, this monitor is running on a long extension cable.[/quote]
I've just been investigating projection systems from a laptop to what is called an "interactive whiteboard", and there was talk about ensuring you have a high-quality monitor 'male-to-male' cable to drive the projector. You can pay Łgasp for these, as this website shows!

Okay ... I've removed the video card, and cleaned the contacts, and reset it. Reset the cables. .... no change. I can live with the shadow lines if I have to ... but this split screen shading is a little annoying. Not vital with this machines functions, but .........

BATcher: --- Translating the pound into Canadian $, I think I paid about that for my extension cables. Same kind of cable is running on a WinXP machine with no problems.

Hmmm ... one problem solved. That split screen shading thing ... I found a "hidden" setting on my new monitor for "white balance" which was checked for NO. Changed it to YES ... and the screen shading smoothed out. The shadow lines are still there, but at the moment it looks like I will have to live with that.

[quote name='AlStewart' post='777613' date='30-May-2009 17:19']Hmmm ... one problem solved. That split screen shading thing ... I found a "hidden" setting on my new monitor for "white balance" which was checked for NO. Changed it to YES ... and the screen shading smoothed out. The shadow lines are still there, but at the moment it looks like I will have to live with that.[/quote]
I've been following this thread and I haven't said anything. But I wonder if it could be the monitor itself. Could you get your hands on another monitor to plug in to see if it behaves the same way; or hook this monitor to another computer to see if the same problem manifests itself?

The only reason I ask (I have zero tech background on monitors) is that I had a Gateway monitor a few years ago that gave up the ghost and started showing flaky screens.

[quote name='Bigaldoc' post='777626' date='30-May-2009 18:08'][/indent]So sorry! That's two in the past couple of days! Perhaps I need to take a holiday...[/quote]
Nah... just cut down on the number of beers before 5 PM.

[quote name='AlStewart' post='777601' date='30-May-2009 19:39']One other thing, this monitor is running on a long extension cable. It's necessary to have the computer in another location for noise reduction purposes. So that may be affecting it -- although this "problem" didn't show up until it had been running like this for about two or three years.[/quote]
It may be worth a quick test on a shorter lead. I take it the monitor is a CRT type? - they can be affected by all kinds of external influences such as speakers, power cables, etc. Try moving it and the cable about and see if the shadows change...

I think you'll find you can solve this problem by altering the monitor's refresh rate. Tempting though it is to use 'Optimal', don't! Start at 'Adaptor default' and then work your way up the various allowed rates till you find where it all goes pear shaped, then drop back to the previous level.

My Win98/AGP nvidia TNT2/Smile 15"CRT monitor at 1024x768 set up fails as you describe above 72Hz.

[quote name='Leif' post='777778' date='01-Jun-2009 12:12']It may be worth a quick test on a shorter lead. I take it the monitor is a CRT type? - they can be affected by all kinds of external influences such as speakers, power cables, etc. Try moving it and the cable about and see if the shadows change...[/quote]

LCD Monitor. It could be the length of the lead ... I'll try testing that sometime.